Top 10 Favorite Lines from Seth Godin’s ‘Tribes’

I read Seth Godin’s 2008 book, “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us,” recently and I took notes of my favorite lines. I whittled them down from 23 to 10.

A quick synopsis … anyone can lead from any position in a company or in the world, they just need to step up, use the tools available to each of us and serve up a creative, compelling message that people will 1. want to follow and 2. want to share.

Marketing guru Godin, bestselling author of “Purple Cow,” uses terms like ‘heretic’ (person who leads thinks creatively and does not concern himself with the status quo) and ‘tribe’ (the people who are dying for something new, a movement to rally around) in stark contrast to a manager in a factory who does the same thing the same way because “that’s how we’ve always done it here.”

I’m in the process of building out my communications plan at USA Volleyball as the Director of Communications & Creative Services as well as building a team to execute that plan to grow the sport and the organization.

1. “The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.”

I have my brushes out …

2. “Publish a manifesto. It’s a mantra and a motto and a way of looking at the world. It unites your tribe and gives them structure.”

I’m liking ‘dig deeper’ as my personal mantra; I think it works on a larger level here as well …

3. “When you hire amazing people and give them freedom, they do amazing things.”

I’ve got a great staff; happy to have hired Corinne Calabro. She’s already making a difference (she borrowed me this book) …

4. “Doing work that is fun is engaging … It turns out that the people who like their jobs the most are also the ones who are doing the best work, making the greatest impact and changing the most.”

I encourage my staff to do work that is fun. If it’s fun for you, it will be fun for our audience …

5. “If you want us to follow you, don’t be boring.”

… coincidently if it’s boring for you, stop working on it. Do something worthy …

7. “Odds are that growth and success are now inextricably linked to breaking the old rules.”

It might be a plus that I don’t know what the old rules are …

8. “The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate.”

Get ahead, stay ahead …

9. “In an era of grassroots change, the top of the pyramid is too far away from where the action is to make much of a difference.”

I’m not exactly sure what this means, but I came into the office excited about building on our undeniable Olympic success. I still am, but now I’m just as excited to work with 300,000 members and our tremendous grassroots programs …

10. “Find leaders (heretics who are doing things differently and making change), and amplify their work, give them a platform and help them find followers.”